FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 20979, 18 December 1931, Page 2

FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

[By Philatelist.]

Any new*, notes, and items of philatelic interest will always bo appreciated. Address care Editor. At the monthly meeting of the Dunedin Philatelic Club, held last Tlmrsdav evening in the Y.M.C.A. rooms, thirty-three members were in attendance. Good displays of New Zealand stamps by Mr J. Pemberton Type variety by Dr M. N. Matt, and Australia by Mr A. Clark were exhibited. During the evening a fair number of stamps changed hands per medium of exchange and sale. « » » * FORTHCOMING SUDAN ISSUE. ' A writer says The news that Sudan is to have a new scries of stamps is welcome to specialists like myself, somewhat sated by variations on the theme of the desert messenger, though there may bo some feeling of regret that we are likely to have to dip our hands into our pockets more deeply so as to keep abreast of the £1 stamps, but it is to bo hoped that there will be a pictorial series, as there are quite a number of possibilities in design. The northern portion of the country contains many remains of antiquarian interest dating back to n.c. 2300 (Usertsen III.) in some cases, and many of early Christian origin. Khartoum has its statues of Gordon and Kitchener, and fine Government buildings; the native life presents many interesting and picturesque features. Its products are numerous' and varied, its fauna include the elephant, lion, antelope, buffalo, etc., and there are apparently several interesting geographical features. The description of Suakin as a “ glistening island in a turquoise sea” sounds alluring. There is the great Sennar Dam and a lengthy railway bridge at Khartbum, amongst engineering achievements. The Gordon Memorial, copied from that at Chatham, is likely to be selected for one design, as it is so eminently suitable, and a whole series could be filled with a portrait gallery of men who have laboured to make British Sudan one of the most outstanding of the successes in Empire development. The mail service of the Sudan is now very considerable, and, although actual postal requirements would bo served by very simple labels, the post office is run on commercial lines and the augmentation of revenue by means of attractive stamps is too tempting to be resisted by an administration which the blue books show to be eminently successful. The air mail service foreshadowed by me early in 1930, as the result of an interview with Imperial Airways, is now definitely established, and this is bound to lead to a vastly increased turnover, especially between points which have hitherto been difneut of access to each other. For every reason, therefore, artists and postal officials should endeavour to make the new series one of the,most popular in the whole range of British Colonials. PHILATELY AND THE GOLD STANDARD. Many collectors and stamp dealers are generally more aw fait with the world’s currency than most sections of the community, but recently even they have been caught napping over and over again through the wild fluctuations in the values of the respective currencies of Great Britain and the special countries in which they are interested. It is all very well to say “Buy British,” but is is somewhat difficult to put it into practice in the stamp trade, for British stamps will not go very far. Some of the wiser ones are buying colonials, and yet, even if 'one would, one cannot ignore the stamps of other countries. As compared with the value of -the £ sterling of oven a few weeks ago, the mark, the franc, and the dollar all seem very dear. For the time being the philatelist must forgot that lie has ever looked on, say, the French franc as being practically fixed at 2d, or the two cent U.S.A. as being equivalent to one penny. The daily fluctuation must bo carefully noted, and it will jiay anyone to act accordingly, and judicious purchases to-day will undoubtedly bring a good profit in due course. An almost inevitable result of the cheapening of the pound lias been an influx of buying orders from America. Many scarce pieces which had been refused by American collectors even a few weeks ago as being too highly priced arc now being purchased, and selections-of stamps sent over to the States generally have come back practically stripped. A very largo proportion of wholesale linos anil packets of stamps come from Germany, and tiio volume of business done has been tremendous. Many millions of stamps have come over to England in a single week, mainly in packets of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 different. Undoubtedly the price of those packets has been cut too fine, and it will do no harm if they do cost a few pence more; but it is a sign of the times that Gorman dealers arc now in England buying, whereas they were mainly sellers even a few weeks ago. The French Catalogue for 1932 does not record any startling changes, but it was published before there were any great fluctuations in the money market. There are many big collectors and dealers in Franco, and these now are turning more to England for their supplies, and the past week lias seen record purchases of the medium priced stamps. SOUTH AFRICA (156). It is rumoured that a new set of Union air mail stamps will be issued shortly. MEXICAN HISTORY IN STAMPS. The current stamps of Mexico take on an added interest if one knows what they represent. The two cents is the old colonial fountain head, which stood at the end of the aqueduct wliicb brought water to the city from springs at Chapnltepee. • The aqueduct has been torn down, but the fountain still stands as a public monument. The three cents shows a pyramid of the Sunat Teotiliuaean, twenty miles from Mexico This was the site of the principal temple of a city which was abandoned nearly eleven hundred years ago, for reasons which have never been completely explained. The four cents is the Hill and Castle of Cbapultepce, on the edge of the city of Mexico. This was the original stronghold of the Aztecs, and as their power extended it became the private estate of their ruler. Later it was occupied by the Viceroys and Presidents of Mexico, and continues to be its White House. The statue of Columbus on the four and live cents and of Cuauntemoc on the thirty are situated on the Pasco do la Rcforma, the magnificent avenue which leads from the centre of the city to Chapnltepee. The Juarez ‘monument on the thirty cents and the statue of the Gorregidora, whose portrait appears on the one cent violet of the series of 3010, are located in the central part of the city. On the fifty cents is the building of the Department of Comnnieaeiones, which controls the Post Office. The one peso shows the unfinished National 'Theatre, which, when completed, will be second to none in the world.

It is most famous for its glass curtain, made by Tiffany, and representing a view of the Valley, which weighs several tons, and which can ho lowered and raised in <IOBOO. The new; official air mails show an airplane flying over the city of Mexico. These stamps are all printed at the Government Printing Office. As everyone knows, Mexico is an extremely nationalistic country, and this is well illustrated in her stamps. The revolution which freed her from Spain was begun in 1810. With one exception, in all the postal history of the country, there is no mention of a person or happening prior to this date. The exception is Cuauhtemoc, the last Emperor of the Aztecs, who was captured with the fall of Teuochtitlan. Cortez and Columbus are alike ignored. Furthermore, only one, foreigner has over boon depicted on a Mexican stamp. Tie is Dr Garcia of Santos, former Director of Correos of the Republic of Uruguay, found on the, twenty, thirty, and forty centavos of the Pan-Ameri-ca ii Congress set.